Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media after the budget was announced. Photo / Marty Melville
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media after the budget was announced. Photo / Marty Melville
Opinion
COMMENT:
The gap between rhetoric and delivery in this Budget is huge.
For all the talk of wellbeing and despite the welcome increases of support going into mental health and rail, there is no serious expenditure going into addressing underlying issues like homelessness, poverty and the uncertain future predicted byclimate change experts.
This Government is focused on managing poverty rather than eliminating it. Managing the system and transforming it are two very different things. Much is made of the decision to index benefits to wages, but on its own this will not get to the root of the problem — that benefits are simply too low to start with. There will be a slight lift in years to come, but this will not pull those on working-age income support out of endemic poverty.
As the numbers of people who are homeless or in massively substandard housing move steadily upwards in urban, provincial and rural New Zealand, this Budget makes no attempt to accelerate the rate of houses built to meet real need.
Housing First can help some of the chronically homeless, but those assisted are a fraction of the many adults and children who have no suitable place to live.
While it's good to see increased support going into the mental health and addiction area, the level of funding will not go far in improving and expanding mental health services at their core. A far more profound shift is needed here, one which puts mental health truly on a par with physical health when it comes to resourcing.
The figures the Finance Minister uses when talking about reducing the number of children in poverty are before housing costs. It's a trick.
On the climate front investment in rail is a positive step in terms of reducing carbon emissions, but far more needs to be done.
This Budget is business as usual with attempts at plugging holes where far more is needed.
• Sue Bradford is a veteran activist and former Green Party MP.
